She was smart, opinionated, and driven - qualities the world of science (as well as the world in general) was badly prepared to appreciate in a woman. I am sure it was helpful in establishing a complete portrait of Rosalind, but it was a bit of a chore to slog through.īut once Rosalind was on the scene, it was hard not to adore (and later sympathize with) her. It starts slow, with an extensive exploration of Franklin's family - parents, grandparents, uncles, their status, etc. Thoroughly researched, this seems as an authoritative account of Franklin's life as one is likely to get. Yet before reading this book, I knew only the barest facts about her: that she was gifted at x-ray crystallography, that Watson & Crick's DNA model would have been impossible (or really, terribly inaccurate) without her, and that her results were used by them in a questionable and poorly acknowledged manner. When asked to name women in science, Rosalind Franklin is always high on my list.
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